Peter Kravchenko Tribute Onlinetributes.com.au

Peter Kravchenko was born on 21 June, 1921 in Kyiv, Ukraine. He graduated from the Kyiv State Art School in 1940. During WWII he became a prisoner-of-war in Germany. He emigrated to Australia in 1949 and immediately became active in the cultural and social life of the Ukrainian community in Sydney, designing posters and stage decorations for the Ukrainian theatre.

Peter finished courses at: the Australian National Opera Academy in stage production (1951); School of Television Skills (1955), and the Art Training Institute (1958). Until his retirement Peter worked as a special accessory designer/creator in the Wardrobe Department at the ABC-TV studios in Sydney, where he made numerous costume accessories for shows like: “Ned Kelly” (1974), “Rush” (1976), “The Timeless Land” (1980) and “Alexander the Bunyip” (1979). He was also contracted to create items for the Australian Opera, the Australian Ballet, and the Australian War Memorial.

In 1967, Peter was co-founder of the Ukrainian Artists Society of Australia, and until his death he was its secretary. Peter exhibited his works in Lidcombe, Wollongong, Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide as well as Kyiv. He had a solo retrospective exhibition in Lidcombe in 1992 (65 works) and in Kyiv in 1997 (60 illustrations of his costumes).

Starting in 1982 he regularly travelled to Ukraine to maintain contact with the cultural life in Ukraine. A milestone even for Peter was the presentation of honorary membership of the Ukrainian National Society of Artists in 1994. It was one of the happiest days of his life. As he stated: “I now once again feel like a citizen of Ukraine”.

Peter’s many achievements in creating cultural links and initiating projects was remarkable. In 1996 Peter organised an exhibition at the Museum of Kyiv’s History in Kyiv dedicated to Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay. In 1998, due to his efforts, Ukrainian Post brought out a stamp to commemorate 50 years of Ukrainian settlement in Australia. In 1999, with his own financial resources, he published a book “Costumes of Ukraine through the Ages”, which was widely distributed to educational establishments, libraries and museums in Ukraine.

He died after a prolonged illness in Sydney on 27 November 2009.